It's hardly a surprise these days when two female TV stars are involved in a public contretemps.Unless, that is, they have a combined age of 157.

The warring pair are presenter Joan Bakewell, 79, and cake-maker supreme Mary Berry, 78-year-old hostess of the Great British Bake Off.

And the issue in question is women’s rights.

Despite their closeness in age, their opinions are deeply different. Baroness Bakewell has launched a stinging attack on Miss Berry’s lifestyle, saying she belongs in ‘a completely different world’.

Renowned for her liberal attitudes towards sex and for an illicit affair with playwright Harold Pinter, the Labour peeress once known as the ‘thinking man’s crumpet’ contrasted her own ‘whizzy’ life with Miss Berry’s ‘stable and unchanging’ world view.

She was responding to comments the cookery writer made in January.

Dismissing feminism as a ‘dirty word’, Miss Berry insisted she did not want women’s rights and said she loves it when men offer to carry her coat.

‘When I read that, I felt that Mary belonged in a completely different world,’ fumed Baroness Bakewell.

‘What she said sounded very lovely and cosy and rural, and very stable and unchanging. I thought that was fine for her.

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‘But perhaps I have lived a bit more of a whizzy life out and about, and my life has been a little bit more rackety. Of course feminism has mattered a great deal to me and matters still.

‘I think Mary would expect to be paid a decent wage for the job she does and she would probably expect to be paid as much as a man. So to that extent she is a feminist without realising it.’

Recipe for success: Cake expert Mary Berry

Joan Bakewell rose to fame in 1965 as the presenter of BBC2’s Late Night Line-Up, which became renowned for its open discussions of taboo subjects including sex, abortion, divorce and homosexuality.

It was later revealed she had a seven-year affair with playwright Harold Pinter while they were both married. Twice divorced, she now lives alone in Primrose Hill, north London.

Miss Berry’s career and personal life, on the other hand, has followed a much more traditional trajectory. In 1966, she published the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook and wed Paul Hunnings. They have three children and are still married.

Miss Berry, whose work includes a celebrated recipe for Bakewell Tart, said she loves it when men offer to fetch her coat or give up their seat on the bus, adding: ‘I’m thrilled to bits. I’m not a feminist.’

The claws are out: Joan Bakewell, right, said that Mary Berry, left, 'belonged in a completely different world' when Berry said that feminist is a 'dirty word'

But Baroness Bakewell insisted such gestures should be ‘common decency’ for both sexes.

She said: ‘Men don’t offer to open the door for me any more. But the opening of doors and things is really a matter of courtesy, and I am really rather in favour of courtesy. I think you have to be polite to each other whatever your gender. It is just common decency and manners between individuals.

‘I always share the bill at restaurants, though I am perhaps somewhat old for what you might call a date. I go out for meals with male friends. Sometimes the very rich ones pay. I name no names.

Very different women: A young Mary Berry, left, has always followed a traditional lifestyle, whereas the life of Joan Bakewell, right, has been 'rackety' as Bakewell describes it

'Some of them are inclined to be particularly chivalrous. But chivalry is a little bit out of date because it suggests all these superior, protective roles for men.

‘I think good manners between grown-ups and indeed between children is desirable. If there is a gender-free way of defining it then that suits me better. You can call it chivalry if you like.’

This summer, Baroness Bakewell will present a programme called Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year.

Family values: Mary Berry with her children Annabel, Thomas and William

Alongside comedian Frank Skinner she will hunt for the UK’s best portrait artist in an open competition held at art fairs across the nation.

The winner will be awarded a £10,000 commission to paint Booker-prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel and see the work hung in the National Portrait Gallery.

Baroness Bakewell said she was surprised to be offered the work, adding: ‘There are no television programmes for old people. You tend to be shunted across to radio as you get older.’

Swinging Sixties girl: Joan Bakewell has said that she does not want to be remembered by her famous epithet 'the thinking man's crumpet'

MARY THE UNCONTRARY...

Born: March 24, 1935.

Childhood: Daughter of the mayor of Bath, she was struck down with polio at 13, leaving her with a twisted spine and weak left arm.

Career: Published more than 70 books in nearly half a century as a cook before appearing in Great British Bake Off. Awarded a CBE in 2012 for services to culinary arts.

Family: Married to retired bookseller Paul Hunnings, 80, for 46 years and recently admitted: ‘I spoil him rotten’. They have two surviving children, Annabel, 41, and Tom, 44. In 1989, their middle son William was killed in a car accident, aged 19.

She recently said: ‘Having children is the greatest thing that can happen to you as a husband and wife. I was brought up to believe that it’s family first.’

AND JOAN THE 'RACKETY'

Born: April 16, 1933

Childhood: Brought up in Stockport, sent to elocution lessons by her mother to eradicate her northern accent. Head girl at high school before reading economics and history at women-only Newnham College, Cambridge.

Schooldays: ‘I actually had a crush on another girl who was a couple of forms ahead of me, but I never made known my love; I just worshipped from a distance.’

Career: Earned nickname ‘thinking man’s crumpet’ as a presenter on BBC2’s Late Night Line-Up between 1965 and 1972. Moved to Granada before returning to the corporation as Newsnight’s arts correspondent. Awarded a CBE in 1999 and a life peerage in 2011.

Family: Marriage to Michael Bakewell ended in 1972. They had a son and a daughter while she had an affair with Harold Pinter. Second marriage to Jack Emery ended in 2001.